WWUTT 1888 Let Love Continue (Hebrews 13:1-6)

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The book of Hebrews ends with a lot of good instructions, but it's in light of what

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Christ has done for us, that we should want to live for Him. May our lives be free of the love of this world when we understand the text.

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This is When We Understand The Text, a daily Bible study in the Word of Christ. For He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.

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Tell your friends about our ministry at www .wtt .com. And once again, it's Pastor Gabe.

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Thank you, Becky. We're back to our study of Hebrews. On to the last chapter, starting

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Chapter 13 today, and God willing, we'll finish up our study of Hebrews next week. So let's look at these first seven verses here of Hebrews 13, reading from the

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Legacy Standard Bible. Hear the word of the Lord. Let love of the brothers continue.

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Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers. For by this some have entertained angels without knowing it.

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Remember the prisoners as though in prison with them, and those who are mistreated, since you yourselves also are in the body.

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Marriage is to be held in honor among all, and the marriage bed is to be undefiled. For the sexually immoral and adulterers

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God will judge. Make sure that your way of life is free from the love of money, being content with what you have.

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For He Himself has said, I will never desert you, nor will I ever forsake you.

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So that we confidently say, The Lord is my Helper, I will not be afraid, what will man do to me?

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Remember your leaders, who spoke the word of God to you, and considering the result of their conduct, imitate their faith.

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There's a lot of chapter 13 that sounds much like Romans 12. Remember that there are elements of the book of Hebrews that sound a lot like Paul, the

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Apostle Paul, and what he's written in other epistles. And so Hebrews 13 has some similarities with that particular chapter of Romans.

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And that's right after Paul has just laid out a doctrine of justification, understanding justification by faith, and it's in view of God's mercies, as Romans 12, 1 begins, that he gives these other instructions.

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So in light of the fact that we are justified by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, what is that supposed to look like in your life?

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Here in the book of Hebrews, we have a similar chapter, where instead of in Romans though,

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Romans 12 through 16 turns out to be application. But Paul is addressing specific things that are going on in that church in Rome.

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And then we can find modern application from that as well. Here in this sermon, since this was probably delivered to the

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Hebrews at large, it was perhaps spoken first in Jerusalem, and then other

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Hebrews this was delivered to. Of course, Luke might be the writer that has written all this down so that it could be distributed to more

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Hebrews. Therefore, there's not going to be an address here regarding specific things that are going on in a particular church, since this doesn't seem to be geared toward a particular church.

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It's the Hebrews. Of course, we can all glean wisdom from this and how God is the fulfillment of what was in the

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Old Testament. How Christ has fulfilled these things and all these things point to Christ. He is the greater

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Moses, the greater mediator, the greater sacrifice.

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All of these things that point to Christ is the greater than. That's what Hebrews points us toward.

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So we can, anybody can certainly see that, be us Jew or Gentile. Here in chapter 13, these are general instructions.

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Now in light of all of this that we have read about Christ and how we are to honor and revere

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Christ, that was the way we ended chapter 12, therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us show gratitude by which we may offer to God an acceptable service with reverence and awe for our

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God is a consuming fire. So as that was said at the end of 12, that kind of sums up all the doctrine that we have been studying,

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Hebrews 1 through 12. And now we get to chapter 13. Here's practical everyday application for the life of any

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Christian in the church. And the way that application starts in Hebrews 13, one is this, let love of the brothers continue.

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May we grow in love. This should be the mark of the Christians in the church. You know, the hymn, they will know that we are

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Christians by our love. Jesus said to his disciples, they will know you by the love that you have for one another.

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The rest of the world, may they be able to look inside the church and go, boy, there is an incredible love that is happening there among these people that we just do not see anywhere else in the world.

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What is this great love that these people have found, that they live by?

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May the way that we love one another be a testament to the people of the world, that we are filled with a love that is not of this world.

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And when we're talking about love that we should have with one another, this is a love that grows. We should be growing in our love for each other.

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We grow in our love for God. We grow in our love for each other in the church. If you have a marriage that stops with the love that the husband and wife have for each other on their wedding day, like that's as far as they ever go in their love.

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30, 40 years later, they still love each other the same way they love each other on their wedding day. Would you call that a healthy marriage?

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No, something really bad is going on. There's something very unhealthy in that marriage. If they're not growing in love with one another.

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My wife and I just celebrated our anniversary of our first date, which was yesterday.

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Well, it was yesterday to today because the date didn't end until after midnight. So we kind of consider March 1st being the anniversary of our first date.

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The love that we have for each other way deeper, way more mature than it was when we first got engaged, first got married.

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And that's what we should see even growing in the life of a believer. The fruitfulness of a believer is going to be seen in growing in love for God and growing in love for the people of God.

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Now, this love that we're growing in is informed by scripture.

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So it's not just love as a feeling. You can't just make love the primary thing. It has to be love as defined by God, according to his word.

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The love that you have for God is you're growing in love for him. You are even growing more in love with his word.

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You can't just love God without his word. That'd be like saying, I love my spouse, but I can't stand it when she talks to me.

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That'd be a horrible thing to say. You don't really love your spouse if you can't stand it when she talks to you. And so if you love

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God, you're going to love his word. The love that we have for God and for God's people is going to be informed by the word of God.

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There's a pastor here in Texas, false pastor, heretic to the max. The stuff that he says and what he's popular for is just absolutely repulsive.

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Pro -LGBTQ, for example, that's another mark of this particular pastor. But anyway, he said this on social media recently, and it created a buzz.

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More people liked it than disliked it, it seemed like. But he said, I'm going to prioritize love above doctrine and dogma, above theology and ideology.

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I'm going to prioritize love because Jesus didn't say his followers would be known by their beliefs.

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He said we would be known by our love. Well, that's absolutely true that we would be known by our love.

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But yes, we would absolutely be known by our beliefs as well. See, the faith that we have includes love.

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It's not choose faith or love or just put these things in opposing categories.

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If we believe in Jesus Christ, we love him and that love has been informed by his word.

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Philippians 1 .9, this I pray that your love may abound still more and more in knowledge and in all discernment.

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You cannot say you love a God. You do not know. And how do you know God? According to his word, we're growing in knowledge of his word.

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And this is how you grow in love for him as well. How do you grow in your love for your spouse?

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You know them more and more. You get to know each other more and more and you grow closer together all the more in this relationship that you have.

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So it applies to our relationship with God and for his people as well. I hope that you are growing in love also for your church.

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You cannot fulfill the one another's of scripture without your church, without brothers and sisters in the

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Lord growing together, sitting under the preaching of the word of God that we're growing in knowledge of him.

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And we're growing in these love and affections that we have for God and for his people. Let love of the brothers continue.

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So we understand that most applicably grow in your love for God's people in the church in which you are a part.

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Let love of the brothers continue. Next instruction, verse two, do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers for by this some have entertained angels without knowing it.

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Now that's been a curious statement and some people have said, you know, you never know who might be an angel.

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So if you show kindness and hospitality to somebody, that could be an angel in disguise that you just shared something with somebody.

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Maybe that's the application there. After all, surely in the minds of the Hebrews, they would have gone to thinking about Abraham who had served

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God and the two angels who were with him at the Oaks of Mamre. Or they might be thinking about Gideon who had a given to the angel of Yahweh, but not knowing that it was it was actually

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God himself that had appeared to him. There was the angel of God. It was really God that appeared to Samson's parents, you know, things of that nature.

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They're probably remembering times in the Old Testament when an angel of God came and spoke to God's people and the people didn't even realize that that was what was happening.

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So they they showed hospitality to this person and turned out to be an angel for by this.

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Some have entertained angels without knowing it. It doesn't necessarily mean that you might entertain an angel without knowing it.

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But just bringing back to your mind, this happened even in the Old Testament. So think about the way that you serve strangers, the way that you show hospitality to them.

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You do this unto the glory of God. It's ultimately God whom we serve, because remember,

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Jesus said in Matthew 25, that which you do to the least of these brothers of mine, you do also to me talking about the poor and those who are in prison and sick and so on and so forth, that which we do to the least of those who are of the children of God.

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We have done also unto the Lord, same kind of thinking in mind when we read

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Hebrews 13 to now in showing hospitality to strangers. This actually does not mean unbelievers, because the context of everything that's said here in Hebrews 13 is largely with regard to the fellowship of the body, especially when we think about verse one, let love of the brothers continue.

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We go right from that into do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers. So it's not with regard to unbelievers, although there is a certain sense in which we understand showing charity to unbelievers.

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But the context of this verse specifically has to do with helping and showing love and charity and hospitality to those who are of the body of Christ.

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You may not know them, but they are fellow believers. So therefore, having the same father who is in heaven, we are to show hospitality.

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We are to treat one another as family. Paul said in Galatians 6, seek to show charity to everyone, especially to those who are of the household of faith.

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So there's certainly a sense, like I said, in which we should show love and kindness and charity to those who are not

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Christians. But in saying, especially those who are of the household of faith, our first attention will be to those whom we worship with, our brothers and sisters in the

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Lord. We're going to help one another in the body of Christ first before we give of that money or that charity of that hospitality to other people.

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And I did want to make one other statement about angels. You know, that word that gets translated angels in verse two is more literally messengers.

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So it doesn't have to mean an angel of God, someone who is a holy heavenly being that has come down and taken on a human form.

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It could just simply mean a messenger. So you're talking about someone who is sent by God to go out with the gospel.

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They're a stranger to you, but provide them lodging, provide them with food and clothing if you are able to.

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We show hospitality to strangers, entertaining those messengers who are sent by the

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Lord to deliver the gospel. Verse three, this goes right along again with that showing love for the least of these brothers of Christ.

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Verse three, remember the prisoners as though in prison with them and those who are mistreated since you yourselves also are in the body.

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Once again, that's why I don't think verse two is talking about unbelievers because all of this is in the context of talking about the body.

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Let love of the brothers continue. And then verse three, that we ourselves are in the body.

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So we're talking about Christians here in verses one, two, and three. We're not talking about unbelievers. So remembering the prisoners as though in prison with them.

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We need to be burdened by the fact that there are Christians in this world who are being persecuted for proclaiming, for preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ.

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Do not be unaware of their circumstance and the things that they are going through.

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We should be praying for them. And we should struggle in our prayers, in a sense, that we labor in our prayers before the

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Lord for those who have been faithful to preach the gospel out on the mission field, been willing to leave the comforts that they probably have as Americans.

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We're one of the most comfortable nations on the planet, and they've been willing to leave their comforts and go out into the world, preaching the gospel, willing to put their own lives on the line so that others may come to faith in Jesus Christ.

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Remember the prisoners as though we are in prison with them, suffering with them in our prayers.

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Those who are mistreated might need to go and visit them in prison. That's what Jesus said in Matthew 25,

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I was in prison and you visited me. Those who are mistreated, those who are abused, those who are persecuted.

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Since we ourselves are also in the body, it's remembering that we are part of the same body of Christ.

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And as the Apostle Paul put it in 1 Corinthians 12, when one part of the body suffers, the rest of the body suffers with it.

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So we should be mindful of those Christians and what they are going through in the world, those who are going out with the gospel of Christ.

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And there are some ways that we can find that out. I hope you as a church are supporting missionaries. If not, you can go to Voice of the

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Martyrs. You can go to, what is it, Mission Network News. World News also has some things on it.

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There's different news sites that you can go to and hear about what missionaries are going through for the gospel that you may know how to pray for them and maybe write letters to them as well.

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That's something you can do as a family, a project that you can do together. So as you meet together for devotions, also have a time in which you're writing a letter to a missionary to encourage them and be in prayer for that missionary.

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That's a good activity to do as a family as well. Now, verse four, marriage is to be held in honor among all, and the marriage bed is to be undefiled for the sexually immoral and adulterers

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God will judge. Marriage is to be held in honor among all. Notice that it says there, marriage is held in honor among all, not marriage is to be held in honor among all who are married.

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No, it's everybody. Everyone in the church is to keep the marriage bed undefiled.

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You're not jumping into anybody else's bed. It's your bed with your spouse.

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And even if you're not married, you're holding couples accountable to one another. They've exchanged vows before God.

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They said, till death do us part. So you're going to make sure that they remain faithful to one another. We help each other in this, in the body of Christ.

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In 1 Thessalonians 4 .3, Paul said this, for this is the will of God, your sanctification, that you abstain from sexual immorality, that each of you know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor, not in lustful passion like the

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Gentiles who do not know God, and that no man transgress and defraud his brother in the matter, because the

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Lord is the avenger in all these things. Just as we also told you before and solemnly warned you, so do not trespass a brother by being flirtatious with his wife and then even jumping into their bed.

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The marriage bed is to be held in honor among all in the church. It's sacred.

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It is to be undefiled for the sexually immoral and adulterers God will judge. You need to recognize that there are serious consequences for adultery.

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For sexual immorality, for having sex outside of marriage. It is a serious sin and God will judge it.

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Colossians 3 .6 says the wrath of God is coming against such sins.

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So do not partake in them. Be pure in your thinking. And if you're going to grow in love for the brotherhood, well, you should not be jumping into anyone else's bed.

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Now, verses five through six go together. Make sure that your way of life is free from the love of money.

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Being content with what you have for he himself has said, I will never desert you, nor will

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I ever forsake you. That's a statement from the Old Testament. But didn't Jesus also say that to his disciples?

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I will never leave you nor forsake you. He said that in the gospel of John. And we also have at the end of Matthew 28, at the end of the

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Great Commission, I am with you always, even to the very end of the age. So we confidently say the

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Lord is my helper. I will not be afraid. What can man do to me? If we know that the

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Lord is for us and he will never forsake us, then we don't, we should not have any desire in the world.

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There's nothing in this world that's going to satisfy us because we're satisfied in Christ. Nor should we be afraid of what man can do to us because we are bought and paid for by Christ.

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We belong to him. And so the Lord is my helper. I will not be afraid.

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Do not go after the things of this world. Jesus said you cannot serve God and mammon or money.

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The apostle Paul said you cannot dine at the table of the Lord and at the table of demons. James said, you adulterous people, do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God?

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And as Paul said in first Timothy 6, 10, for the love of money is the root of all kinds of evils. And it's through this craving that many have wandered away from the faith and have pierced themselves with many pangs.

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Do not be in love with the stuff of this world. Make sure your life is free from the love of money.

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Be content with what you have, giving thanks to the Lord for all he has given to you.

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That's as far as we're getting today, Hebrews 13 verses one through six. Let's pray and we'll pick up in our study of Hebrews 13 next week.

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Heavenly father, we thank you so much for all that you have given and shown to us. And may we be content with what you have given to us, even the church that you have given to us.

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We're thankful for this church and for this body that we might grow with these believers.

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They helped to sanctify us and we're helping to sanctify one another. Help us to be mindful of what other

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Christians are going through for the sake of the gospel. Help us to honor our marriages and to keep the marriage bed undefiled and keep our lives free from the love of things that are worldly.

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May our devotion be to Christ and we are completely satisfied in him. May our lives be lived to the glory of your name.

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It's in Jesus' name we pray, amen. You've been listening to When We Understand the

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Text with Pastor Gabe Hughes. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, Gabe will be going through a New Testament study.

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Then on Thursday, we look at an Old Testament book. On Friday, we take questions from the listeners and viewers.